Wearing a lanyard makes navigating the rides soooo much easier, as you don’t have to fumble to pull out park tickets and/or your Express Pass every time you board a ride or the Hogwarts Express! You can also store other cards in it if you’d like.

They sell Lanyards at the parks, BUT you can get them cheaper and have them ready ahead of time if you buy them on Amazon.

TIP 3: BRING YOUR SUNGLASSES!!!!! and for extra fun pix, wear the reflective kind, so you can take cool pictures of the sights in the reflection of your glasses!!!

I am SO taking a pic of myself with the Volcano at Volcano Bay in the reflection of my glasses next time!

TIP 4: If you are prone to burning, bring Sunscreen

I LOVE these little travel-sized ones that can go in your carry-on and are TSA approved sizes.

TIP 5: BRING A WATER BOTTLE WITH YOU ON THE PLANE AND INTO THE PARK, so you can refill it at the water fountains and stay hydrated (as well as staying hydrated on the plane, because planes are very dry)…you can store it in your little backpack (see Tip 6).

If there is a decent chance of rain in the forecast, and you already have thin rain ponchos at home (ones that would fit in your little backpack), consider bringing them, so you’re not stuck buying overpriced ones at the park during a storm. Plus, they are great for wearing on the water rides.

on ETSY, you can find some amazing Harry Potter jewelry, shirts, etc….they even make adorable Gryffindor “Mickey Ears” that are perfect for a park so close to Disney World!

If you are prone to motion sickness, FORGET Dramamine, which makes you sleepy, try SEA-BANDS, all natural accupressure nausea relief bands. I use them for Jimmy Fallon’s ride, the Minions ride, Simpson’s ride and Forbidden Journey rides. Everyone’s different, but those are the only rides that I need them on.

Volcano Bay does NOT provide Towels! I just bring a towel from my hotel’s pool to Volcano Bay, but if for some reason this is not possible, you might want to consider packing towels for Volcano Bay.

I’ll probably think of more later, and have to update this blog…

I HOPE that this list was helpful for you, and please leave a comment if you have ANY other questions, and most importantly ENJOY YOUR TRIP!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! 🙂

Colonial Williamsburg has some BEAUTIFUL Christmas decorations made from all natural items and Christmas Town in Busch Gardens is just super Christmas fun! Loved the Scrooged play there!

Some of these are from the Colonial section, and they are made from all natural leaves, pinecones and other things that one might be able to find in their backyard.

In the Colonial section…Magnolia leaves. Love how this can be made from things you can find in your yard!!!!

The fancier decorations,, with extra things like ribbons and such, are from Storefronts at Colonial Williamsburg’s Merchants Square.

Storefront at the Market…this is not the Colonial section, so a little more fancy.Storefront at the MarketStorefront at the MarketWith Fall being late this year, the contrast of gorgeous autumn foliage and this Christmas tree in Colonial Williamsburg’s Merchants Square was magical!Beautiful all natural decorations

My favorite natural decoration is below. One day I’m going to make this….

This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE beautiful all natural decorationLOVE the use of fresh fruit for decoration at Colonial Williamsburg 🙂LOVE the all natural decorations at Colonial Williamsburg 🙂

Back to the store fronts:

This is in the British section of Busch Gardens at Christmas Town! If you are interested in going to Busch Gardens Christmas town and want to see and learn more about what it is like, and see a lot more of the decorations and lights, check out my awesome video! (click here)

you see this tree pretty much as soon as you walk into the park 🙂Decor on the “Family” bathroom 🙂Heading into the Ireland section of the park, one of my fave’sThis is leaving New France, heading towards GermanyBack in IrelandDas Festhaus in Oktoberfest section!I”m 99% sure that this is in Ireland 😉The big gorgeous tree in front of Das Festhaus!!!! it has a musical, magical light show!!!!!France! lots of yummy crepes and wine in this section 🙂This is the North Pole! Where Santa is hanging out….watch out for looooong lines—sheesh!If you want to see more, check out my awesome video here!: https://youtu.be/JE2yYx3JdT4

…if you don’t have any of your own, borrow some! Be the bestest Aunt or Uncle alive!!!

…and they FORCE you to ride the Hulk and other fun stuff like that…

…they also enjoy all the small details of the place 🙂 and seeing their joy is priceless

AND, if they’re under 56″ tall, you can join them (one adult per kid under 56″) on Pterandon Flyers and see super cool sights like these from above!!!!!

Skull Island, Reign of KONG…I took this while riding Pterandon flyers with my nephew (note: you’re not really supposed to take pix from up there, but….)Super fun play area in Jurassic Park that is best enjoyed with the little ones

RANDOM TIP # 2: Head from Universal to Islands of Adventure during the sunset….soooo pretty!

Absolutely EVERYTHING at Toothsome Chocolate Factory is DELICIOUS, even the Brussels Sprouts!!!! …AND if anyone in your party has a peanut (or other allergy) the chef comes to visit your table to discuss your options and it certainly feels good to know that he’s aware of the allergy! it STAYS PACKED here, though, and always on a wait. The best time to come is right when they open. if it’s just one or two people, try sitting at the bar and eating.

yes…the above picture deserves posting twice 🙂

RANDOM TIP #3: DO THE RAPTOR ENCOUNTER! It’s so cool and well worth the wait…and you can watch the raptor attack children while you wait, which is very entertaining! The “trainer” is hilarious, AND if you hand them your phone they will take video AND pix for you!!!

By the way, I challenge you to come up with a better pose than this 😉

RANDOM TIP #4: RIDE THE MUMMY!

WHAT a FUN roller coaster!!!!! its so cool how it gives you little breaks and scary interactions in between the screaming fast roller coaster! Even my 7 year old nephew loved it. Also, the line is usually super short (a hidden gem?) and I didn’t know it at the time that this picture was taken, BUT NOW I know that after you are in the room where there’s fire-literally- on the ceiling, then you go down a drop, that’s where the pic is taken -to your right…so you can pose for it!

RANDOM TIP #5: Buy some reflective sunglasses. I mean, you’re in Florida, you NEED sunglasses….then you can take much cooler pix than this one that I took while waiting in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff (….the kids LOVE this ride, so be prepared to ride it like 26,397 times!!!!)

RANDOM TIP #6: STAY AT THE HARD ROCK HOTEL! The Hard Rock Hotel is one of the 3 hotels that gives every member of the family Unlimited Express Passes for their entire stay (including the day that you arrive, and the day that you leave). Those suckers are worth $89 per person per day. It’s worth it. period. THEN you can spend the day RIDING RIDES versus WAITING IN LINES!!!!

The pool is super awesome, has a fun slide, AND has speakers under water so you can hear music underwater while you swim.Watching a Harry Potter movie at the pool is just one of the many, many, perks!Speaking of perks…for a deposit–that you get back–you can have an electric guitar during your stay!so when your niece becomes a famous musician, she can give you all the credit for getting that guitar and she’ll probably buy you a house to live in when you’re not on tour with her band 🙂the kids LOVE it…..and, dude…you only live once, and those Express passes are GOLD. (side note: my nephew Sebastian wrote this in his cute little 7-year old handwriting and signed his sister’s name…I’m sure she would want ya’ll to know this… )

RANDOM TIP #7: Visit the Knight Bus. Just because….

RANDOM TIP #8: Get the short ones to dial 62442 (M-A-G-I-C …on an old school phone…you know you remember those!) in this phone booth to reach the Ministry of Magic

(Is Sebastian not the CUTEST little Harry Potter EVER?!?!?!??)

RANDOM TIP #8: Get an interactive wand. LOADS of fun (…and sometimes frustration when the little muggles can’t get the spells!). this map comes with it, and if you go to Knockturn Alley you can hold the map under the blacklight at the entrance to illuminate all the spell locations. It’s a blast. trust me.

The blacklight highlights all the spell locations in the area on the right…you can just barely see it in this pic.

While you’re in Knockturn Alley, check out the Vanishing cabinet in Borgen & Burke’s. You can hear what’s inside it!

RANDOM TIP #9:**ALWAYS** buy a “park-to-park” pass so you can ride the Hogwarts Express back and forth from Islands of Adventure to Universal Studios and vice versa…it’s a different ride each way and its just a MUST. If you don’t get this you lose major brownie points and coolness status, just saying….squib.

RANDOM TIP #10: The Hogs Head Pub has beer. This is an important fact. Riding the Flight of the Hippogriff 10,567 times will make you want to visit this establishment.

This is my sister. She needs this place after riding the Forbidden Journey ride 🙂 Look how happy she is.

This is inside the Hogs Head pub. that hog is an Animatronic. super cool. Dragon Scale beer is good.

This is the wizards version of Immodium AD. I’d probably need this if you could ever get me to eat the black pudding they have at the Leaky Cauldron. black pudding! do you know what that is? google it. I.can’t.even.

Get your kids some robes. not Slytherin though. are you sure? yes. anything but Slytherin.Random fun fact: Luna is one of my FAVORITE characters.as a side note, THIS is how a Harry Potter book should look…

On August 6, 2017, we began a 6 day mountain bike trip with Alps Mountain Bike Guide Company starting in the amazing, adorable, adventure wonderland of Chamonix, France and ending in Zermatt Switzerland. The trip was tough and included lots of steep climbing and hike-a-bikes and super technical descents, but it was super fun. The weather not always kind or forgiving, but the scenery, food and little towns that we would have never visited otherwise were awesome! Apologies as this post is not full of bike porn pics, but mostly scenery, buildings, etc. BUT as soon they’re up, I’ll add links to Dave’s GoPro footage of the mountain biking for the day here:

Day 6 was the final day, in which we rode to Zermatt Switzerland. Since there are no cars allowed in downtown Zermatt, that meant we would have had to stay in the outskirts of town…and be further from Geneva for the next day’s transfer, SO at the end of our ride, we rode back to the same hotel in St. Niklaus to stay for the last night.

This was awesome because, for once, we didn’t have to pack our suitcases and load them onto the van before taking off for the day!

It was a sweet little break.

This time we were SO prepared for the cold, wet weather. We had a complete change of clothes over-stuffed our camelbacks, to the point of bursting seams, and, of course, a rain fly covering the packs.

We took a shuttle ~halfway between St. Niklaus and Zermatt then rode a semi-flat, just slightly uphill trail towards Zermatt where we went to the train station to view the webcams of the Matterhorn.

So unfortunately, the weather was super cloudy and overcast and even snowing at the top. We never did even see the Matterhorn, but I imagine it was up there, being as beautiful and breathtaking as ever. And we posed in front of a billboard with the Matterhorn on it, so that’s close enough, right?

Normally, we would’ve taken a gondola or funicular up to near the top of the Matterhorn and rode our bikes down, BUT due to the snow, we had to discuss alternate routes. This snow meant that the trails would be completely covered at the top and very hard to navigate and the rocks would be especially treacherous.

So instead we rode about ~3,000 (elevation gain) up a winding jeep track, into elevations where there was first a light dusting of snow, then complete cover!!!

A little snack break and yoga

Here is a link from my YouTube channel of a cool little time lapse of the inside of this tunnel : https://youtu.be/KsUnJQg0fUY

Once we were at Sunnegga, we built a snowman, then bought warm soup and changed into warm dry clothes for our fun, sometimes uber technical, descent in the snow!

It was the first time that I ever rode in snow!!!!…. so at least THAT was SUPER cool AND could be checked off my 50 before 50 AND my bucket lists! Bright side, kids, bright side….

As we rode down the mountain, the snow was gone again, and we stopped for another snack break and cool pix of the little neighborhood below us:

This is our guide, Thierry!

We then rode up another climb for about 1,000 feet elevation gain to this area…

So that we could FLY downhill on a nice SUPER flowy, SUPER fun, bermed and pumped track and then rode into Zermatt!!!

Oh I wish we could’ve stayed in Zermatt WAY longer! My pictures don’t come close to doing it justice!!!! it was an AAAAMAZING town!!!!!

We finished our day, AND our 6 day tour with a ride all the way back to St. Niklaus, where we had dessert…

OF COURSE we had dinner first though!!!!

This is a picture of our EXCELLENT group, who were all kind, friendly, fun, super interesting and great riders from Finland, Spain, Quebec, Brazil, and of course, the States!

YAY!!!!! WE DID IT! WE COMPLETED THE HAUTE ROUTE VIA MOUNTAIN BIKE!!

Although I was bummed about the weather, and recovering from an ear and sinus infection, etc. , it was, without a doubt, an AMAZING trip. I’m so glad that I was able to see these little villages of Switzerland that I would never have seen otherwise!

The food was incredibly delicious, perfectly portioned, and WAY more healthy than typical American meals.

The technical aspect of the trails was an AWESOME and a SUPER FUN, monumental, challenge and although I was slow, I was still proud of myself for all the climbing that I did throughout the week!

The downhills were absolutely epic.

I am sooooo jealous of the people who live in the areas that we rode!!!!!! I can’t believe they get to ride that all the time!!!! aaaaggghhh…so jealous.

I learned so much, not only new biking skills and interesting new ways of teaching and awesome drills, but I learned how to cuss in Finnish (now I can proclaim “Pashka” in front of children and not get into trouble!!!) and where Game of Thrones Dragonstone castle is (near one of the guys in the groups house!!!) and maybe, just maybe, I learned how to be a little bit tougher in cold, wet, weather!!!!

(i’m a Florida girl, born and raised, and for LIFE when it comes to temperature….if it’s below ~75 I’ll even ride with long sleeves!)

I’m forever grateful to our group and guides for being so awesome!!! …and also for the ability to go on this amazing trip!

Here are some pix that I took JUST outside our B&B right before leaving St. Niklaus 🙁 *sniff sniff*

On August 6, 2017, we began a 6 day mountain bike trip with Alps Mountain Bike Guide Company starting in the amazing, adorable, adventure wonderland of Chamonix, France and ending in Zermatt Switzerland. The trip was tough and included lots of steep climbing and hike-a-bikes and super technical descents, but it was super fun. The weather not always kind or forgiving, but the scenery, food and little towns that we would have never visited otherwise were awesome! Apologies as this post is not full of bike porn pics, but the weather was so nasty-There will a link to some beautiful and gnarly GoPro footage a couple of paragraphs below as soon as Dave uploads.

This is what day 5 was like:

The weather was crap-nasty 🙁

My ankle was still swollen, but felt much better, but I still wanted to bail on this day so badly…but I didn’t!!!

(*pat on the back*)

Since the weather was so bad, we were dropped off on a peak in order to avoid a climb in the cold rain. There were two restaurants there. I went into one and it had amazing decor and ambiance. I think a pic of the bathroom in this place was practically the only pic I took unfortunately, because we were in a rush to get started while the rain was still super light.

I wish I would’ve taken more pix but we were so rushed all the time it felt like…I mean, nobody wanted to wait in the cold rain, so I get it…

The riding was wet and cold. even the easy downhill sucked for me because I got so much mud in my face, and dripping down into my eyes…not even my glasses helped.

It took us 2 hours to cover ~5.6 hours before we were finally picked up by the shuttle van and were taken to St. Niklaus to our B&B for lunch. Since the rain cleared up, Dave and Toumas and one of the guides went on a little ride after lunch while a couple of us toured St. Niklaus in search of an ATM and newspaper to help dry our shoes. Dave has some beautiful Go Pro footage from this, which i’ll insert as soon as it’s up!!!

PRO TIP: When I later told my chiropractor, (who was also a mountaineer who had spent most of his life from birth in Geneva), how unkind the weather was to us on this trip, he said that the trick was to ALWAYS PLAN TO GO TO THE SWISS ALPS DURING THE FULL MOON. He said that the weather was always clear during that time frame. Man, I wish I had consulted in him BEFORE we planned the trip!!!!